Living in rural SW Virginia, part I: Get a dog.

It seems like I start off with good intentions of writing but am so sick of writing in general/for "work", that I can't be fussed to come on here and write again. Especially about work/"serious" stuff. Well, the semester's started. I'm teaching a class on International Relations Theory (which has had a drop off of students after the first class so it *might* end up being more of a seminar. This means I will most likely rework my current syllabus, which is (was) geared for a class of 40 or so students). I'm also teaching a class on Global Security. It should be...interesting. I'll write a bit about how they go as we proceed, more to record the experience for FutureMe! in case it's useful. This is unlikely to be of much help/use to yous, I feel but, ah well.

Since I'm horribly late on everything (book proofs due in two weeks; edited book to be edited; two papers to write for the yearly International Studies conference--in less than a month's time!; classes to be prepared for, etc etc), I'll give you a snippet from life here. Dog and I headed out of town yesterday (we are having terrible weather--ice, rain, icy rain) and ended up in a small town nearby. This was at one of those gas stations/shops which have *everything*. I love those shops.

"Miss, you should really lock your car when you park it. People can just get in and drive off"
"I need to leave the window open"
"We....ll (in the way that they say it here. With at least four syllables), if you've got money to throw around. But, don't say I didn't warn you" (this was a complete stranger btw)*
"Yeah, I'll risk it"
"All right then...he good at hunting?" ("he" = Dog. I've not acquired a human hunter whom I leave in the back seat of my car. Though that sounds surprisingly good)
"Yeah, all right. I don't take her hunting"
"One of those liberals?"
"I don't think the dog cares much about politics"
(laughs) "How about you?"
"I don't vote"
"Yeah, not much in it these days" (long discussion of the evils of govt)

These types of interactions happen *all* the time here. Two things: a) Dog is a diplomat for when we wander into small shops/towns in the area. People who would never talk to me, I feel, are very chatty once they see Dog; and b) "I don't vote" seems to mean "you agree with my views that the govt is evil"

You can see Dog here: 

As you can see, Dog is a bit of a mix. There's a group of veterinary students who run an organization that pulls dogs (and cats) from high kill shelters in the area and places them in foster homes. I am one of the foster homes and, before Dog, I had 4 other fosters. The day we went to get Dog, we had our eyes on a boxer mix.** As with most rescues, the group tries to pick out dogs that are adoptable. We got to the pound and there was this ridiculous creature that only had patches of hair and had been at the pound for almost a year. We were told she was skittish, afraid of most things and generally "sweet but no one wants her". Well, after convincing the organization's person (who was superb!), I ended up with Dog as a foster. She was adopted out twice (from me). One time, she was brought back overnight. The other time, she lasted a week before the lady who had adopted her brought her back. 

In the meantime, I went home for summer, came back and Dog was still with the organization. Readers, you know where this story is going. Six months after I first got her from the shelter, I decided to keep her. After long-term medication, she's grown hair (as you can see) and has a (very!) high prey drive and so can't be off leash (ever!). She's not the easiest of dogs as her general mode when outside is "KILL ALL THE THINGS!!!"

The highlight of her life is probably the time there was a deer in my back park (pictured above) and Dog rushed off and grabbed said deer (about twice her size) by the leg. Got kicked. This happened: 

Me: Hello, my dog just bit a deer and got kicked. She's staggering a bit but seems ok.
Vet hospital: How big is your dog?
Me: 30lbs
Vet hospital: (silence): can you say that again? 
Me: 30 lbs
VH: and she went after a deer?
Me: Yes
VH: (laughter) If she's walking, she'll be all right. Just keep an eye on her. 

It all ended up ok but, in the time I've had her, Dog's run off heaps of times (mostly when I'm half asleep/not hanging on to the lead with all my strength when she spots a squirrel), made it to DC and back with me this past summer (she was a star in our street in DC, where I lived for 2 months) and tends to hoover up any/every-thing we find on the streets when we walk. During winter, we are in the town more (the back park is dark and vaguely creepy by 4pm) and Dog generally hates other dogs if they venture too close to us. 

In short, I think I'd have been heaps more productive (maybe have had Book 3 out by now?) without Dog but, hey, if you plan to move from a city to a tiny town where you know no one, a dog is great. 


* I bought my car for $1200 off a Canadian postdoc who was heading off to Japan, with his wife. It's a 2000 Ford Thingy and is built like a tank. As I'm a fairly new driver (more on this in a later post), it's probably not the best car for me but, hey, it works and I don't drive much. 

**The boxer also got saved another time. Not all dogs in this area are as lucky.  

On experts and the construction of terrorism

So this happened. Steven Emerson, a person who has written books on terrorism and has his research firm (investing terrorism, of course) said that Birmingham is not just no-go zone but a no-go city. Here's the Guardian story on it and the video:





He later apologised and said he'd made a mistake but let's think a bit about this:

1. This is someone who made this claim in a well-known and very widely-watched TV network. The apology, most likely, won't be seen by many. So, for Fox News viewers, this was fact--that Birmingham has no non-Muslims (leaving aside the question of how we've equated "having Muslims" with "undesirable").

2. Yeah, he said that. This is someone who has talked to US government officials, etc. How can such a level of ignorance proliferate? Well, it's what *seems* right--Europeans have "Muslim problems" (a term used by more than one of my students in the past year or so). So, hey, might as well say it. 24-hr news = minimal fact-checking, maximum opinions and speculation.

3. Events like that in Paris actually benefit not just the perpetrators but also the media. How? Well, it's obvious--the perpetrators realize they can get heaps of publicity. The media also realizes the same. Terrorism sells.

Going back to Emerson for a bit, he also said that there are parts of London where Muslims run about making sure everyone's dressed properly Muslim-like. He didn't apologise for saying this.

If there's a tiny beam of light in all this, the hashtag #Foxnewsfacts on Twitter was hilarious. However, the point remains that this shouldn't have had to happen. And, again, my point no. 1 above. 

"Bring yer togs, mate!"

I've been writing about language and the fun(ny) things you can do with language. My first language was, surprisingly enough, Thai. My father was at university when I made my way into the world and he was preparing to write his Masters thesis in Thai. Hence, everyone at home spoke Thai. My mum, still now, speaks Thai very well but her English is iffy (never having had to use it, you see).

Well, anyway. My bit on language today was about postcolonial theorists and what they think of English (or French or any other "colonizing language"). I'm not sure what I want to say here. I'm writing about decolonialising so I guess the question would be how can we decolonize language-use. Dismantle the way we write and think of something new. But, how? I'll leave that as a question for now and just point towards this map.

It's a map of regional Australian dialects. I went to undergraduate in Far North Queensland (which, for those unfamiliar with Australia, is considered pretty much far out there by the rest of Australia) and then did my Masters (and lived afterwards) in Sydney. The cultures are very different. The populations are very different. And the language is very different.

As I found out when, as a newly-arrived 17-year old, I was told the sentence that forms the title of today's post as folks were getting ready to head off on a road trip. But, what was I supposed to bring?!

2015 is a good year for blogging (I hope)

It's an odd day to revive the blog. It's blustery (winds of up to 30mph) and very cold ("feels like -10 degrees F" with an actual temperature of 4 degrees F) tonight. I'm sitting at my coffee table (every other surface is strewn with books and papers for other things) trying to finish up an Enclyclopedia entry on, of all things, "Colonialism and Internal Colonialism". For which I have a grand total of 5,000 words to work with. It's been pretty dire.

Then, there is the shooting in Paris. You can do a quick Google and read all about that elsewhere. I want to just post this here (I posted it on Facebook but figured it's best to annoy other people--the general public, as it were):

So, have we just given up condemning/reporting (had to dig into the "Africa" section of the Beeb for this) killings that happen outside of "the West"? Or, is it because this doesn't have the romance of plucky-newspaper-fighting-for-free-speech? It does have plucky young people lining up to protect their fellows/etc. 

In short (or, in long): who do "we" identify with (Charlie!) = our perceptions of who is a(t) threat (US! and those-other people *are* the threat) = formation of suspect communities/continuation of discrimination against specific people. /end rant.

This is the news story that started it off: 37 killed by a bomb in Yemen. 

Future posts--I'll try be fairly regular--will, like before, note my observations about life here where I live, have stories of Dog and comments on (some) news stories and (a lot of) popular culture. 

On absurdity and inverting the norm

Been a while, eh? In the meantime, I've submitted my first-ever solo book manuscript to the publishers and finished up another (edited) and sent *that* to another publisher. I've had my sister visit (and she's still here) and we've proceeded to explore the byways of this part of the United States (details another time) but I'm popping in now to share a couple of things:

1. This is a list of Monty Python sketches that are the favourites of various well-known (in varying degrees) people. Almost all of them point out the anarchic chaos that was central to much of Python but is it Neil Gaiman who encapsulates well what I think of them: the anarchy and chaos but also the unfamiliar-in-the-familiar. In other words, you think you know what will happen next but it doesn't happen the way you think it will. To me, this is a useful reminder that what may seem obvious to one person (social collective) is not so to others. I try make this the central point in my teaching but it's usually more difficult than it sound, especially when the thing you are teaching is national security or terrorism when the students think they know who are the baddies (and it's never "us")

2. As a fan of men in suits myself, I appreciate this!

Cuts (Australian)

A return to the more "serious" stuff now: I've been following the Australian budget and discussions over it. It's actually quite shocking how "mainstream" the major Australian newspapers (especially the Australian) are over this--the blame for whinging and not accepting realities seems to have fallen upon Labor (the opposition). This is absurd as it's a budget that cuts funding to the vulnerable. E.g. folks have to pay to visit their GPs now, which they never had to before; Universities can set their own fees for courses, which means some courses might disappear altogether as being "not cost effective". And we all know those won't be the "real science" courses though one of the key areas cut is also funding to science research. But it's also interesting as Australia has a manageable (compared to the US) budget deficit and the economy is doing quite well. And, yet, there have been cuts in social welfare and climate-related issues--$80 billion in long-term cuts just to health and education.

To me, the issue is a good one to follow because, while Australia is similar to the US in many ways, its opposition (generally toothless lately) is actually making a fair effort to protest these cuts to social welfare. Many of the general public are angry (and protesting). There seems to be more of an awareness that "we" shouldn't let the government do this sort of thing. Though, of course, that is what happens generally during full on neoliberal/austerity reforms and, yet, nothing changes and the cuts become normalized over time, creating a society of Haves and Have-nots in which the increasing inequality is brushed under the carpet. Just like us here, in fact.

For those interested in reading about the 2014 Australian budget, the Guardian has a whole bunch of stories here. 

Weddings! (or, just one wedding)

I'm currently in Marietta, GA (slightly outside of Atlanta) for a friend's wedding. I've known said friend since undergrad, when I was a wee confused kid who'd landed up in far north Queensland and lucked out in finding some really wonderful people to hang out with. She's also provided me with some info about one of my alter egos (the marine biologist) as she's a sea/ocean/water (whatever we call it) geologist (she doesn't know I have alter egos). But, that's not my point. My point is: this was a wedding in which I knew NO ONE. None. Zero people. Except the bride and obviously the bride's not going to have time to stand around and hold my hand and make sure I didn't flounder in the waters of social oceans (dreadful analogy/metaphor/whatever we call it there). Instead, I was left on my own and am not sure how I did (not too well, I think, from a conventional social behaviour sense) but can say I had a marvellous time. So here's what happened:
I was placed at a table where there were 5 people (out of a table which seated 8). I was the only female (I later found out some of the lads were supposed to bring their wives and girlfriends but didn't--who knows why!) and I was the only person that didn't draw, write, own, edit comic books. In fact, I think I can name the number of comic book artists/writers I know on the fingers of one hand and have fingers left over. Oh and I know very little about So Bad They Are Awesome '80s films (the wedding songs were almost all from the '80s and there was a lot of 80s films discussions going on) and I'd just come off a 14hr buses/train journey+2 hr bus journey from Atlanta to Marietta (for a distance of 20 some miles. Yeah public transport!) so my comprehension/concentration skills, already fairly minimal, were shot.
And, yet, as I said, I had a great time. Why, you ask? Well, I think the main reason was that it was like hanging out with people I know. Someone would start off by talking about Thor and the conversation would jump from Helmsworth, Chris to ancient Norse myths to what they have in other religions/cultures to how women were portrayed in the comic book Thor vs movie Thor and then back to how ancient people conceptualized "men" and end with a joke. There were no rules but also everyone KNEW stuff. Romans? Yeah, they were killed by (long explanation)...Oh no, Romans were the ones who (another different explanation)...man, those Romans (joke). It was the sort of thing where your brain works to keep up and then you feel a bit energized afterwards. There was also no filter (ok, that was mainly me) as things like: "Oh, goodbye. Nice to meet you. Hope you have a good trip back. Gosh can we add yet another platitude to that? But, wait, Don't forget the platypus." made perfect sense (none of us really drank anything apart from copious amounts of coffee). My last words to them? (as I was worriedly waiting to figure out if the shuttle to the hotel had left without me on it and they were asking if they should wait with me, even though they had hours of driving ahead): "No, no worries. I'll just stay here and haunt this bloody place as a ghost."
Answer: That's a pretty perfect answer.
I mean, it's rare anyone says that to me. My uni friends would have been all: that Priya, she's so weird. Here, the folks thought that I'm sure (and thought I was rude, too, since I spent quite a fair bit of time trying not to fall asleep over the table) but didn't say it. And kept on keeping on even when it was obvious I wasn't doing much to uphold my end of the convos.
[This blog has gone from my observations about the news/uni stuff to my observations about me and my thrilling personal life. Let's just say it's observations on/about anything?]
ETA:  To point out that I'm sure folks *thought* I was weird but didn't *say* it. I mean, I was operating on 5hrs of sleep for the previous 48 so, yes, high on adrenaline and coffee and sheer nervousness at knowing No One At All.